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Wednesday, January 2, 2013

One Bite at a Time

It's that time of year
again. The calendar counts us down, day by day, and we finally reach the
dividing line. We let go of the old and welcome the new. Resolutions are made
with the best of intentions, plans are created for a fresh outlook, a different
way of being. Excitement fills the
air!

Then the weeks roll by and we
soon fall right back into the old patterns we wanted to get away from. Sound
familiar?

We’ve all been there.

Why are we so predictable in
giving up on our goals? Maybe it’s because we set ourselves up to fail before
we’ve even started.

Attaching so much importance
to an arbitrary date that rolls around just once every 365 days or so raises
some high expectations. And when those expectations aren’t met (losing 10
pounds, learning to play an instrument, watching less TV – choose your
particular brand of renovation), we feel disappointment, guilt, a sense of
resignation. So, our exercise equipment gathers dust in the corner of the room,
we can never seem to find the time to practice our instrument, TV shows draw us
in and, the next thing we know, we’ve been on the couch for four hours
straight.

And soon enough we lose
our energy and eagerness, calling the year a lost cause.

I propose that, this year,
we put away the idea of starting over on the first of January.

Let’s keep in mind that
every day, every hour, every minute, every second even, we have the choice of
doing something different. Every time we choose “this” and not “that”, we are creating
the story of our life. Even if we are unaware that we are making a choice, as
soon as we realize that there is another option, a new opportunity is born.

Say that you resolve to improve
your physical fitness by taking a walk every day after work. And weeks go by without you so much as
putting on your walking shoes. No problem. Instead of giving time and energy to
blaming yourself or others, or recounting the reasons for your lack of
follow-through, use that time to open your front door and put one foot in front
of the other.

Pretty soon, just by choosing to take the next step, you’ve had
your walk. And the next day, choose to open your door again and put one foot in
front of the other. You get the picture.

Recently, an extraordinary
woman named Delores contacted me, looking for a different path to take with her
life. She was overweight,
pre-diabetic and unhappy with the way she was feeling.

The thing about her that
immediately caught my interest was her creativity and motivation in reaching
out to a total stranger and creating a new opportunity for herself. She didn’t wait
for a new year. She didn’t have a detailed plan. She just knew that it was time
to set a new course and she took steps forward. And every day, she makes the
choice to live this new life.

It was my joy and my pleasure to offer her what I
could in the way of support. I was, and am, so inspired by Delores that my team
and I created the E3 Live Challenge and set up a blog to showcase her progress.
If you’d like to read more about Delores, follow her transformation, and be
inspired to rise to your own challenges, click here.

So, what about you?

What new
choices will you make for yourself in the year ahead? What inspiration will you
take from the people in your life who have done something different to get
different results? How quickly will you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and
get back on track when you have fallen short of your goals? Will you look at
big tasks and think you are too small to achieve them? When that happens, remember
this:

I am not a medical doctor. Please use your own judgment and the advice of your physician to make decisions about your health and treatment of any medical conditions. Unless otherwise expressly specified, all information on this blog is my personal opinion and not intended to take the place of medical care.